HEALING
Moe Altamuro: Healed from the World Trade Center Cough
By David Kithcart
The 700 Club
CBN.com – “That night we sat on the Hudson River down at Liberty State Park and watched the buildings burn. We cried. We said, ‘I’m going to go there tomorrow.’”
Moe Altamuro plays the drums and owns a music shop in East Stroudsburg, PA. But on September 11, 2001, he lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. Moe and his friends caught a boat over to Manhattan to help with the recovery effort at Ground Zero.
“We were finding kids’ toys and parts of the plane,” he tells The 700 Club. “It was so bad. They’d shut down every piece of equipment on the site and listen, thinking they hear somebody and dig and dig. People were digging. It was just hard to deal with because we were rummaging through body parts.
“And the smells… It was so bad, it was sickening. People were getting sick. And it went on all night.
The workers had little protection besides a mask to cover their mouth and nose. “We were over there working with nothing,” Moe says.
He continues, “The taste in your mouth, your lungs, your nose and in your throat was so disgusting. I had a military issue pair of jump boots. They fell apart at the seams.”
The toxic fumes from Ground Zero were affecting more than his boots. Moe developed a deep chest cough that wouldn’t go away.
“I had a lot of phlegm and blood that was coming up. Looked like pieces of meat were coming out of my lungs. It was really, really bad,” he says. “The months that passed, it was getting worse. I started looking green.”
Moe’s wife, Eileen, was watching The 700 Club one morning.
“He started saying that they were getting bombarded with prayer requests from people who were suffering from this World Trade Center cough. He caught my attention. He went on to pray for the people, the families, the rescue workers, the volunteers, the paramedics, the firemen,and the regular civilians who came to help in this effort.
“Pat said something that really weighed on me. He said, ‘If you think you’re dying and you don’t know where you’re gonna go, if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you repeat this prayer after me, you’re guaranteed a place in heaven.’”
Moe had always believed that there was a God but he never personally knew Jesus. That day, Moe and his wife prayed the sinner’s prayer.
“We both confessed Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior together,” he says. “The most miraculous thing in my life happened. I woke up the next day, and I was cured. I was healed. I said to Eileen, ‘I can breathe.’ And she said, ‘What? You got your voice back.’ I go, ‘Whew, it’s amazing! It’s a miracle. I can’t believe it. I can breathe!’”
Moe and Eileen are thankful for how God healed Moe’s cough, but even more so, for their salvation.
“If I didn’t accept Christ that day, I really believe that I wouldn’t be here right now,” Moe says. “I believe that I would have perished along with the other people who have already died from that stuff they inhaled.
“Everything else I have ever followed has failed. It’s been a lie — money, glamour, glory, baloney. There’s been no real joy out of any of it.”
Moe hopes that others see the true light of God’s salvation.
“Every person that I have ever hung out with, that I have ever partied with, that I have ever sinned with…[I hope] they could see this, feel this and understand that through Jesus Christ you can be forgiven, have salvation and meet me in eternity one day.”
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
